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The Dark Tapestry and how it relates to Living Pathfinder

As I said in the General Discussion Thread, I am considering creating a new character to replace Veniarus who I am considering retiring. The thing is, I am considering creating an Oracle of the Dark Tapestry. However before I do so, I kind of want to know how the Dark Tapestry itself fits into the cosmology and theology of the Living Pathfinder Campaign Setting.

First off I have looked through the Living Pathfinder Wiki's section outlining what is allowed and disallowed from Ultimate Magic. The Dark Tapestry was not on the list of items explicitly forbidden from use when the book was reviewed. Thus I can only assume that now that it is after 6 months that the Dark Tapestry is legal for use by the players. However when looking at the Cosmology of our game world the closest thing I can find to any mention of anything remotely resembling what might be the Dark Tapestry is references to "The Fourth Path" am I reading these references correctly? Is that what the Fourth Path is supposed to be in effect?

The other question is if the Fourth Path is what essentially makes up the composition of the Dark Tapestry in Living Pathfinder, then the question becomes, how do the Great Old Ones or Elder Gods or whatever you want to call them transition into Living Pathfinder? Do they also follow the same archetype model as every other god in Living Pathfinder? Or do they follow a different model since they are supposed to be in some way Alien to the world in a sense?

So I guess the question I am asking is how would I go about incorporating this into a characters background, especially one to whom it is so intrinsic as to being an actual matter of faith?

Personally, the things I latch onto in the description of the Dark Tapestry on the Pathfinder wikia are chaos, madness, etc. I would be inclined to nix the bit about the "ancient eldritch horrors" and instead say that the Dark Tapestry is a space created by the intersection of the Chaotic Vertice of the Moral Path and the Darkness Vertice of the Essential Path. I don't really see anything in the Dark Tapestry description to suggest a connection to E'n's Fourth Path, although the latter is admittedly an incredibly vague concept at the moment.

If this is the accepted way we translate the Dark Tapestry concept into E'n's cosmology, then I would suggest that a PC (especially an oracle) have had some dramatic encounter with this primal force/plane. Not to self-promote, but the island I've been developing, Illi Esse, which is a place in which the other places intersect with the Material E'n, would facilitate such an experience. There are of course many other alternatives. Perhaps the Dark Tapestry has in fact given birth to beings of some sort, and that they've reached out to a character to make contact with the Material Plane?

Personally, the things I latch onto in the description of the Dark Tapestry on the Pathfinder wikia are chaos, madness, etc. I would be inclined to nix the bit about the "ancient eldritch horrors" and instead say that the Dark Tapestry is a space created by the intersection of the Chaotic Vertice of the Moral Path and the Darkness Vertice of the Essential Path. I don't really see anything in the Dark Tapestry description to suggest a connection to E'n's Fourth Path, although the latter is admittedly an incredibly vague concept at the moment.

If this is the accepted way we translate the Dark Tapestry concept into E'n's cosmology, then I would suggest that a PC (especially an oracle) have had some dramatic encounter with this primal force/plane. Not to self-promote, but the island I've been developing, Illi Esse, which is a place in which the other places intersect with the Material E'n, would facilitate such an experience. There are of course many other alternatives. Perhaps the Dark Tapestry has in fact given birth to beings of some sort, and that they've reached out to a character to make contact with the Material Plane?

Well its not just the Pathfinder Wiki that is the primary source for citing the Dark Tapestry as housing eldritch abominations... it's also the Oracle Mystery of the same name (the Dark Tapestry).

For example, the Read the Tapestry ability allows the Oracle to shunt his consciousness into the tapestry where in he is able to communicate with said Eldritch Abominations as per a Contact Other Plane Spell. And the Dweller in Darkness ability actually summons a minion of the Eldritch Abominations to this world which has the effect of a phantasmal killer spell at low levels and a weird spell at high levels. So in essence there is actual hard fast proof that such entities exist within the Oracle Mystery itself.

Additionally the Oracle Dark Tapestry Mystery is not the only class that can conceivably be tailored to mention the Dark Tapestry. For example the Witch's Insanity Patron, the Sorcerer's Aberration Bloodline, and even certain Cleric Domains can all be said to originate within the Dark Tapestry. So its really a matter of figuring out exactly how the Tapestry works within our cosmology, and where the Lovcraftian Horrors fit into the campaign setting as far as I can tell.

The Dark Tapestry and its followers fit in as the bad guys. Read the deities line for the Dark Tapestry Oracle. Death, pain, destruction, death, cruelty, greed, murder, death... The worst of the worst except for the Rough Beast, Destroyer of the Universe himself. Did I mention death? I mean, even Asmodeus doesn't go near the Dark Tapestry.

The Dark Tapestry is the force behind the evil that is slowly corrupting the world. It would kind of hard to make a non-evil character to worship that force.

The Dark Tapestry and its followers fit in as the bad guys. Read the deities line for the Dark Tapestry Oracle. Death, pain, destruction, death, cruelty, greed, murder, death... The worst of the worst except for the Rough Beast, Destroyer of the Universe himself. Did I mention death? I mean, even Asmodeus doesn't go near the Dark Tapestry.

The Dark Tapestry is the force behind the evil that is slowly corrupting the world. It would kind of hard to make a non-evil character to worship that force.

Correction...

The Dark Tapestry's deities are not by definition evil in carnate (unlike Asmodeus) rather they simply have so much unbridled power in the tip of their pinky finger that just touching that pinky finger to the prime material plane could end up destroying it in it's entirety. The saving grace about it is that they just don't really care about the prime material plane enough to even really bother.

In effect if left alone, these deities amount to massive blobs of Chaotic Neutral in it's most natural form. It is only when they are purposefully interfered with that they begin to manifest behaviors more akin to Chaotic Evil. And even then its only a few of them that manifest Chaotic Evil tendencies.

That said, there is absolutely nothing in the rules of Living Pathfinder that outlaws a player from worshiping a Chaotic Evil Deity. In the case of Clerics, Oracles, Inquisitors, etc... who have an Alignment Restriction based on the God they worship, the easiest way to pull this off is to make the character Chaotic Neutral even if the Deity is Chaotic Evil. This way at least the character can behave in a good fashion at least some of the time.

Oh and for the record, the deities listed in the Oracle Dark Tapestry Mystery don't actually reflect the actual Dark Tapestry Deities, for those you want these deities:

Okay, let's see here. Inner Sea World Guide. Not on the approved source list. Scratched. Carrion Crown as a source. Scratched. Gods and Magic. Scratched. So, the few references that are on the approved list are in the Ultimate Magic and go back to my previous list of deities. And even if we did allow those other sources, the web links you pointed to were all either massively chaotic evil or simply neutral destruction. Either way, both are out.

You don't get to worship Cthulhu or Akutu the Black Kraken, plan to destroy the world and claim you are a nice or neutral guy.

It is kind of hard to put you into an adventure to go defeat an evil cult if you happen to be worshiper of that evil deity. I realize I am being snippy, but my 1/7th of ultimate power to rewrite the rules says no. We left the door open to rip out approved items that cause grief at a later date. So, we could go the through the formal process of blackballing the Dark Tapestry mystery of the Oracle, but it seems rather obvious it is evil, and evil is not allowed.

Okay, let's see here. Inner Sea World Guide. Not on the approved source list. Scratched. Carrion Crown as a source. Scratched. Gods and Magic. Scratched. So, the few references that are on the approved list are in the Ultimate Magic and go back to my previous list of deities. And even if we did allow those other sources, the web links you pointed to were all either massively chaotic evil or simply neutral destruction. Either way, both are out.

You don't get to worship Cthulhu or Akutu the Black Kraken, plan to destroy the world and claim you are a nice or neutral guy.

It is kind of hard to put you into an adventure to go defeat an evil cult if you happen to be worshiper of that evil deity. I realize I am being snippy, but my 1/7th of ultimate power to rewrite the rules says no. We left the door open to rip out approved items that cause grief at a later date. So, we could go the through the formal process of blackballing the Dark Tapestry mystery of the Oracle, but it seems rather obvious it is evil, and evil is not allowed.

Go find a different character concept to embrace.

You do of course realize that Oracles don't explicitly HAVE to worship a deity? If I really wanted to make a case for playing a Dark Tapestry Oracle I could simply say the character worships the ideals of Insanity itself and have him be aligned as Chaotic Neutral or heck even Chaotic Good. This said however, my question was geared more towards the existence of the Dark Tapestry and how it affects the Religions of the world setting, and whether there were any way to justify having player characters of such an affiliation. Outlawing the Deities while limiting people who have access to the Cleric Domain of the Dark Tapestry, should not however be able to limit the Oracles who have access to the Mystery of the Dark Tapestry for the simple reason that unlike Clerics, I don't think Oracles are actually bound to be the same alignment as the deity that they worship at all. For example, it is from what I am reading in the SRD, entirely possible to have a Lawful Good character who worships Cthulu and has access to the Dark Tapestry, so long as that character is an Oracle and not a Cleric.

Though with regard to your points about those Source Books... I am pretty certain that 99% of the source material is actually derivative work based on H.P. Lovecraft's the Call of Cthulhu Mythos and as such the whole "ban it simply because it is in a Golarion Specific Book" just simply does not apply here. And there is actually at least one instance of a Chaotic Neutral Deity (who actually happens to be one of the stronger deities in the pantheon) worship of which would open up the possibility of being Chaotic Good in effect!

You do of course realize that Oracles don't explicitly HAVE to worship a deity?

You're right in that they don't have to worship a deity. But their power comes from a deity whether they like it or not; they are in fact chosen conduits of divine power. A deity is not going to choose someone to wield their power if that person doesn't hold similar beliefs.

This said however, my question was geared more towards the existence of the Dark Tapestry and how it affects the Religions of the world setting, and whether there were any way to justify having player characters of such an affiliation.

I think that a case could be made for the existence of something like the Dark Tapestry (though it is a concept I don't personally care for) using the description that Qik used in his post above. We also have the three divine archetypes that rest outside of civilization (Storm, Stranger, & Destroyer) and their specific manifestations (Akutu and others) that could easily fit into that trope.

But, your question was is there any way to justify player character affiliation. We don't allow evil characters. I think allowing characters that aren't evil but that get their power from evil sources in getting too close to that line. For me, the answer to that question is 'No, we can't justify this for PCs'.

I am pretty certain that 99% of the source material is actually derivative work based on H.P. Lovecraft's the Call of Cthulhu Mythos and as such the whole "ban it simply because it is in a Golarion Specific Book" just simply does not apply here. And there is actually at least one instance of a Chaotic Neutral Deity (who actually happens to be one of the stronger deities in the pantheon) worship of which would open up the possibility of being Chaotic Good in effect!

Where that material comes from originally is irrelevant. What is relevant is what sources we allow. In LPF, the sources we allow that reference the Dark Tapestry is Ultimate Magic. What matters is how, and if, we want to work a similar idea into LPF.

IMO, there could be a place for the concept in LPF, but not for characters.

what about chaotic neutral aligned deities that follow one of the three archetypes that you mentioned GlassEye? While Chaotic Neutral is close to Evil, it is also close to Good in the moralistic approach. In a sense banning the Dark Tapestry as a player usable mystery is in essence saying the same thing as "You cannot play a Cleric or Oracle whose God is in anyway Chaotic Evil, Neutral Evil, Lawful Evil, or for that matter is in any way Chaotic Neutral, Lawful Neutral, or True Neutral, simply because we do not want to have any characters who somehow draw their powers from entities that do not in some way espouse the values of 'truth, justice, and the American way!'"

If we are banning the Dark Tapestry for the simple reason that it's deities utilize portfolio's that encompass " Death, pain, destruction, death, cruelty, greed, murder, death..." and yet more death... then would it not be logical by extention to also ban all Evocation specialized Wizards who are of the Chaotic Neutral Alignment as well seeing as how their entire specialty basically revolves around causing destruction on a massive scale?

In otherwords the way I am reading you guys, is that you only want player characters who have a moral alignment that places them squarely in the good category, or at the very least whose deities are squarely placed in the good category.

I think that a case could be made for the existence of something like the Dark Tapestry (though it is a concept I don't personally care for) using the description that Qik used in his post above. We also have the three divine archetypes that rest outside of civilization (Storm, Stranger, & Destroyer) and their specific manifestations (Akutu and others) that could easily fit into that trope.

Exactly. The Dark Tapestry seems an interesting place for someone with some motivation to world building to fit into LPF. With some tie-ins established some GMs could have a field day with some of this stuff and give us a whole new opening for plot ideas and nefarious schemes.

Originally Posted by GlassEye

But, your question was is there any way to justify player character affiliation. We don't allow evil characters. I think allowing characters that aren't evil but that get their power from evil sources in getting too close to that line. For me, the answer to that question is 'No, we can't justify this for PCs'.

I agree. Dark Tapestry concepts are fine and gives GMs even more sources to draw their grand schemes from. Trying to tie a PC to this Dark Tapestry seems to be playing on that line of evil too closely for me.